Abstract
In bird species, one of the trade-offs between reproduction and survival appears in the parental decision to desert the nest. Nest desertion is modulated by several factors including clutch size. However, the incubation stage at which predation occurs is also an important factor. In this study, we examined whether nest desertion was linked to initial clutch size, partial clutch predation (final clutch size) and the incubation stage at which it happened in a capital breeder: the female common eider (Somateria mollissima) nesting in the high Arctic. The study was performed in Kongsfjorden in 2002 on the western coast of the Svalbard Archipelago (78°55′N, 20°07′E). We observed that nest desertion was higher when the initial clutch size was small. Also, females deserted their nests more during the first third of incubation than later. Thus, as incubation proceeded, nest desertion was less likely to occur even after egg reduction. Our results pointed out that this parental decision in female eiders seemed to depend on initial clutch size and on the date into incubation of clutch reduction.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor, the Norwegian Polar Institute and the CEPE-CNRS. The programme was also funded by grants from the Singer-Polignac Foundation. The authors wish to thank Wojtek Moskal and the staff of the Norwegian Polar Research Station in Ny-Ålesund for technical support. The experiments have been conducted with the authorization of the French and Norwegian Ethics Committees and the Governor of Svalbard.
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Sophie Bourgeon and Francois Criscuolo contributed equally to the work
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Bourgeon, S., Criscuolo, F., Bertile, F. et al. Effects of clutch sizes and incubation stage on nest desertion in the female Common Eider Somateria mollissima nesting in the high Arctic. Polar Biol 29, 358–363 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-005-0064-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-005-0064-7